We’re a family that puts great importance on our music, and because of that, we have every musical device that’s able loaded up with our favorite music. My daughter and I both have MacBooks that we’re using, and my husband has a Hewlett Packard laptop. When my husband got a new iPod, he decided he wanted to take over control of his music on his laptop instead of having me do it on my laptop. Since an iPod can’t be synced with Windows and Mac at the same time, the dilemma became how to get the music from the MacBook onto the HP, then onto to iPod. Sure, there’s old-fashioned ways, such as making CDs to transfer, but in this electronic age, it’s not necessary. iTunes Match did it all for me.

iTunes Match does have a hefty price tag on it for $24.99 a year.  That’s what kept me from signing up when it was first released with iTunes version 10.5.1. However, for our uses of music, it became worth it. To sign up for iTunes Match, open iTunes on your computer and find the link on the left side underneath iTunes Store.

iTunes Match begins by gathering information about your library. It needs to know exactly what you have on there. Depending on how much you do have on there, it can take a while. While you can link up to ten computers and iOS devices to iTunes Match, you can only have it upload one library at a time.

iTunes now matches up the songs you have on your computer with ones in the iTunes Store. Since not everything is available in the store, it won’t find everything in this step.

For all those songs it couldn’t match up, iTunes Match now uploads them into the cloud. This was the selling point for me with the service. My husband was putting stacks of CDs into iTunes on his computer. I wanted access to that too, yet didn’t want to spend the hours combing over it all. For the CDs he uploaded that just came through as “Track 01,” “Track 02,” etc., it wasn’t very helpful. iTunes Match couldn’t match that to anything in the store and just put it in the cloud that same way. I’ll have to go through at some point and identify and edit those to fix it. Again, the time for this step will vary depending on your own library. My library had over 2000 songs in it and the whole process took hours.

Once iTunes Match has finished uploading artwork and songs and has matched everything to the best of its ability, you’re free to either add another computer or link up your iOS devices. Initiate it on a second computer the same way you did for the first one, except click “Add This Computer.”

To initiate iTunes Match on your iOS 5 devices, go to the Settings app, and choose Music. change the option for iTunes Match to being on. It will ask for your password and warn your about replacing your library. The service will remove your library and replace it with what you just uploaded to the cloud. For me, I have music I don’t keep on my devices as it’s things I no longer want or things I downloaded for someone else. However, once you have enabled iTunes Match on your device, it gives you an option to only show your downloaded items on your device. It’s still avaiable to you in the cloud, but you don’t have to sort through it.

For the purposes of this article, I chose the option to have the cloud visible in my iTunes library on my iPad. The items that are not in my library on my iPad, but are in the cloud, have a little cloud icon next to them. The coveted library my husband was looking for is now in the cloud. We had changed the album name to “Jeff’s Mix” to keep the songs together, and had replaced album artwork with special pictures of the family. I’m not even sure where those pictures are anymore to redo it. However, that adjusted playlist is now in the cloud, with the pictures. It was on my MacBook, and now with iTunes match, we can download it to our devices, and my husband can download it to his computer, and then put it on his iPod.

With the music stored in the cloud, you have a choice of playing it from the cloud, or downloading it to your device or computer. If you want to download it, tap the cloud icon next to the song or album you want downloaded. It seems to take a little longer this way then downloading it from iTunes straight up.

The advantage to downloading the songs and not playing them off the cloud is that you then have the option of using other music apps. I prefer to play my music using the SoundHound app, and after I downloaded the song off the cloud, it then appeared in this app as well. I also added the service to my iPhone, making all of the music we have ever downloaded in iTunes, or have uploaded to these two libraries, available on all iOS devices and both computers. Doing the same to my daughter’s computer will improve all this even more.

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Once you open Remote, you have two choices: Turn on Home Sharing and Add an iTunes Library. Before you add anything, Home Sharing needs to be turned on.

Turning on Home Sharing asks you to log into your account with the Apple ID and password. This isn’t necessarily the same ID and password of the computer you’re using, but yours. It’s how Apple keeps track of you.

Once you are signed in with your Apple ID, the app asks you to turn on “Home Sharing” on any computer using your Apple ID and iTunes.

Once Home Sharing is turned on, the iTunes logo pops up, along with your library on your desktop or laptop computer. If you have multiple computers using your Apple ID, all of those would show up.

Clicking the icon for one of the libraries opens up the iTunes library showing you all of the music, movies, and TV shows that are active in that particular iTunes library.

Not only can you “see” what’s inside the library, you can also control the play. From here, you can stop, pause, forward, and reverse, as well as control the volume. The volume isn’t coming out of your Apple device, but the desktop or laptop computer. You can also create Genius libraries at this point.

Clicking the icon next to the name of that library in the upper left returns you to the Remote app on your Apple mobile device. Clicking on the setting icon in the upper right controls Home Sharing, allowing it to be turned on and off. Through here you can also set up a library that isn’t using Home Sharing.

Opting to set up a library not using Home Sharing gives you a four-digit passcode. Open up the iTunes library you’re trying to tap into and find the name of the device in the devices list on the left in the app. Click on this and it asks for the four-digit code.

This leaves this library as yet another option in the Remote app. Opening it not only allows you to play the computers that are using your Apple ID, but also the computers you have set up that are not. Your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch can now be used as a Remote so that you can play music, movies, or TV from anywhere in your home or place of business. No longer do you have to go upstairs, go into another room, or go inside to change the music. You can do it all from where you’re sitting.

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Also at that website, the Apple ID can be managed. Clicking on “Manage Your Account” allows you to edit your name, edit your email, or add an email. Your password can also be changed here, as well as the security question used if you ever forget your password. If you do try the wrong password too many times, it will become locked, and the correct password can be retrieved by contacting Apple. Physical Address, Phone Numbers, Languages, and Contact Preferences can be changed here as well.

Using your Apple ID to Access your account information through iTunes on a mobile device allows you to turn on or turn off iCloud on that one device, yet if you access it through iTunes on your computer, you can remove any of the devices from your account. Apple allows you to have up to ten different devices associated with one account.

However, once a device is associated with one Apple ID, you are not allowed to switch back and forth to other Apple IDs frequently. Apple locks it up for 90 days. My daughter used to have her own iTunes account, but once iCloud was released, she and I wanted to share an account to share the songs we download. She has to wait out the ninety days, though, before the system will allow her to make that change. Additionally, Apple does not allow you to merge your older accounts, including MobileMe accounts. This means if you were downloading iTunes content under different IDs, you won’t ever be able to get it all under “one cloud,” for lack of a better term.

Despite not being able to merge your accounts, you’ll still have all that content available, you’ll just need to sign on under different IDs, just as you always have. However, you won’t be able to do it within the same 90 day period. It would also be a good practice to decide which ID will be your primary one since it will now be the primary way that Apple defines you.

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Below, we walk through the steps needed to get over these two hurdles and some more tips too.

Move Your iTunes Library To An External HDD

If you can get by with just a minimal iTunes Library and supplement it with options like Spotifty, Rdio or Last.fm then that’s great, but if you’re unwilling to part with a larger repository of local media, Apple make it quite easy to place your iTunes Library on an external hard drive, providing instructions for doing so here. Begin by making sure iTunes is not running and navigate to:

[User Name] > Music

Here you should see a folder named “iTunes” – just drag and drop the iTunes folder into a safe place on your external hard drive and let it copy. Once this has completed, launch iTunes, bring up “Preferences” and within the “Advanced” pane, you should be able to select your library’s new location.

Once you’re sure that all is working correctly and providing you have a full backup in place, you can now delete the iTunes folder off your Mac.

Share An Optical Drive

As we become less reliant on physical formats for media such as movies or music, the MacBook Air’s lack of Superdrive is not such a compromise than it was when Apple introduced the super-thin notebook. Still, some may find that they like the option there, just in case.

With a MacBook Air (or any recent Mac running OS X 10.4.10 or later), it’s easy to share another computer’s CD/DVD drive which is on the same local network. For instructions on setting up optical drive sharing on a Mac or Windows, head here.

Squeeze Out Each Moment Of Battery Life

The MacBook Air has very good battery life for a notebook computer but if you’re a road warrior and constantly away from home, you’ll want to maximise your productive time and there’s a few things you can do to achieve this:

Airport Settings

Navigate to your Network Preferences and untick the box marked “Ask to join networks” to prevent your Mac from scanning for new wireless points. In addition, if you do not need them, deactivate Bluetooth and Ethernet.

Backlit Keyboard

The backlit keyboard seen on the new model MacBook Air is great and doesn’t use all that much power but since we’re hoping to squeeze every last moment of battery life, head over to your Keyboard settings (located in System Preferences) and be sure to turn the backlight timer down to 5 seconds.

Energy Saver Settings

Make sure your MacBook Air’s screen brightness is set to the lowest you feel comfortable with and ensure that it sleeps within a couple of minutes of non-use.

Calibrate Battery

Apple recommends that you occasionally calibrate your battery in order to maximise its life. Click here for full instructions.

Setup Spaces or Mission Control

Whether you chose an 11 or 13 inch MacBook Air, your machine will be more than capable of getting serious work done. However, if you’ve got several applications open at once, that small screen can begin to feel a little crowded. Setting up a Desktop space for each class of application (word processor, web browser) will help give the impression of using a much larger monitor. OS X Lion and OS X Snow Leopard have different ways of handling spaces, so we’ll cover both below:

Snow Leopard

In order to manage Spaces effectively on Snow Leopard, open System Preferences and click on the “Expose & Spaces” preference pane, then make sure you are working under the “Spaces” menu. As you can see in the screenshot above, clicking on the small + will add an application to the list, from which you can then select the desired space. The user can also move between Desktops with a keyboard shortcut and set the number of Spaces to make available.

Lion

OS X Lion brings in a new style of handling spaces and it is one which may not be as intuitive on first use for Mac users used to older versions of OS X.

Navigate to System Preferences, then Mission Control to bring up the screenshot shown above. In order to keep more complete (and predictable) control over your Spaces, untick the “Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use” box. This done, your applications can be manually assigned a space by either placing them into your Dock or having them currently running.

To set which Desktop your Mac should launch individual applications, right-click the app in question and locate the “Assign To This Desktop” preference under “Options”. Since the application must be in your Dock to set this up, it can be a somewhat laborious process, though is very useful once complete.

Conclusion

There are a lot of other things you can do to maximise your MacBook Air’s usefulness, such as purchase a larger monitor, keyboard and mouse to transform it into a desktop machine, or use applications like Dropbox and Evernote to keep your files in sync – ensuring that a MacBook Air is more than competent to serve as your main computer, whether it’s needed for work or general web browsing.

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Step One: Get Thee to the Apple ID Site

You can manage your Apple ID from the My Apple ID site, which is found at https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/. Open a new tab in your browser and paste that URL. This is the site you will see.

Click on the “Manage your account” text in blue on this page.

Step Two: Sign In

Now, you will be asked to sign in with your current Apple ID information. If you have forgotten your username or password, you can use the “Forgot your Apple ID?” or “Forgot your password?” links below the fields to get them back. Just be aware that they may email you the information so if you don’t have access to the old box, you may just want to take an educated guess or two.

Step Three: Edit

You will see your email address listed on this page. Across from it will be the word “Edit”. Click on that word.

You will now see a box with your current Apple ID email address inside of it. This box is typeable. Go ahead and put in the new email address that you want in this box. Then click on the blue “Save” button at the bottom of the page.

There you have it, your ID is changed. If this is all you wanted to do, then you can stop here. If a change to a more memorable (or more secure) password is also in order, then let’s move on.

The Password Pane

On the left, you will see a set of menu options. Click on “Password and Security” to bring yourself to the password pane.

From here, we will be able to make changes to the password associated with your Apple ID. Find the blue writing labeled “Change Password” and click on it.

Now, you can go ahead and enter your old password once, and your new password of choice twice. This form will also ask you if you want to change your security question, which you may want to do if the question is out of date or you simply no longer remember the answer you selected. When you’re done, click on the big blue “Save” button at the bottom of the screen.

There you have it, one newly changed Apple ID and password ready for your use.

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Cog is a lightweight music player,  which supports many audio file-types including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, Shorten, Wavpack, Wave/AIFF and much more. It also offers HTTP streaming, as well as some neat features like gapless playback, support for Apple remotes, Last.fm integration and Growl notifications. Additionally, it lets you specify which audio output device to use, should you happen to have more than one.

Layout

The layout is as straightforward as they come. It has a window which serves as the playlist, into which you can drag and drop music from Finder or the “file drawer”. You are able to save and load playlists, and both m3u and pls formats are supported. There are also options to turn on shuffle and repeat as one would expect from any music player, and you are able to search the playlist to jump quickly to a specific file.

Music Library

Some people find iTunes’ management of our music folders less than ideal, in the way that it reorganises and renames files and folders. As mentioned earlier, my music collection suffered a catastrophic setback a few years ago when iTunes decided to delete the entire collection of files. I was able to recover most of it, but needless to say I’ll never trust iTunes again. Thankfully, Cog takes a very hands-off approach to managing your music.

Cog has what it calls the “file drawer”, which is basically an integrated finder window attached to the main playlist window. The first thing you’ll need to do is specify which folder to use as the base for the file drawer in the application preferences, as per the image below.

Once you’ve done that and saved the preferences, just click the little folder icon on the top left and the file drawer will expand out. Adding music is then as simple as dragging and dropping folders or files from the drawer.

Shortcut Keys

Cog supports the Apple remote and also lets you specify shortcut keys in the preferences, under the “Hot Keys” tab.  It also offers full support for media keys, should your Mac keyboard have them. One issue you might run into, however, is that iTunes might also start when you use one of these keys. Thankfully, there is a solution. Simply download and install this little utility, and iTunes will no longer run when you hit one of the media keys –

Conclusion

All in all, if you’re looking for a music player that won’t chew up a lot of RAM and is fast and functional, Cog’s the app you’ve been waiting for.

You can find and download the latest release of Cog here.

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iTunes Genius on a Mac

The Genius option did go through one small change. They took some of it away. It’s not clear whether it just wasn’t as popular as they expected it to be, or whether they just thought the Ping service would be that much more popular, but they did take away the suggestions that were always made in the right side.

With the Genius options as they stand now for iTunes 10.3, it will suggest songs, TV shows, and movies based on what you have bought through iTunes. I don’t really care for their music choices for me, as the music bought on my account is also purchased by others in my family who don’t share my musical tastes.

Using the music that you have in your library, iTunes will create several Genius Mixes, creating them by genre. It will put alternative rock together, classic rock together, etc. It can be a great way to listen to music without having to skip around too much.  You can also choose a song in your music library and ask iTunes to create a Genius Mix around it. If you go into the Store menu at the top of the app, you can either turn off the Genius option, or update its choices

iTunes Genius on an iPhone

On an iPhone, your choices are broken up differently. In the iPod app, if you click on “Playlists” at the top of of the list, it offers a choice of creating a Genius Playlist off of one song. These lists can also be saved from your computer or your devices, if it creates one that you particularly like.

If you want song suggestions based on prior purchases, open the iTunes app and click on “More” at the bottom, then the “Genius” option. It offers suggestions for music, TV, and movies. Genres can be chosen to narrow down these options as well. It will also tell you why it’s making that suggestion, such as suggesting The Who based on a purchase of Bruce Springsteen.

Again, I don’t follow the Genius suggestions too much for music, or even TV and movies. Where I find it extremely useful is with the App Store. I buy a lot of apps, and I’m always interested in knowing about others that might be kind of similar, whether it’s a music player, writing app, etc. Opening the App Store, if you click on the “Featured” menu, it has an option at the top right for “Genius.” If you click on that, it will then allow you to “Turn on Genius” and make suggestions similarly to the way it made music suggestions.

iTunes Genius on an iPad

The choices on an iPad are very similar to the choices on an iPhone, being that they’re both running the same iOS and similar apps. Here the option for making a Genius Playlist based on a song is in the lower left corner of the iPod App.

To get Genius song selections on the iPad, open the iTunes app and click on the *Music* menu at the the bottom, followed by the “Genius” tab at the top. Again, the choices can be narrowed by genre. This will give you recommendations by both song and album.

This is a place where the Genius recommendations are very useful. As with the iPhone, open the App Store app, the click on the “Genius” option at the bottom. This will again offer you an option for “Turn on Genius,” then will make app suggestions for you. I had to turn this option off, as it caused me too much of a slowdown in the app. To turn off the Genius app choices, or to turn off the Genius music choices, click on your account name at the bottom of the “Featured” page of either the iTunes or App Store menus, then click on “View Account.” You can both turn it off here, or also turn it on.

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Under iTunes 10.3, it looks very much the same as any other build of iTunes, but it has the one key difference in that it’s already working within the confines of the cloud. Much has been said about the cloud, but it seems more like a mysterious and ominous entity. For anyone that has any doubts about it, this slight occurrence of it in iTunes should give a hint of how great it could be.

If you click on “Purchased” under the store menu, as always, it shows all the songs you have purchased on iTunes from that computer. However, if you glance towards the lower right, underneath that listing it says, “Download Previous Purchases.” This rather inconspicuous listing does far more than it appears to.

Clicking “Download Previous Purchases” takes you to a listing of Music, Apps, and Books that have been downloaded previously. This means all materials to have ever been downloaded by your iTunes account. It doesn’t just mean the ones you have downloaded using that current computer, or the ones that are loaded on that system. It means all to have ever been downloaded by the history of that account, including ones downloaded to a different computer or unsynced iOS device.

If you click on Music, you’ll see a list of the fifty most recent purchases, as well as an alphabetical listing by artist. Next to each artist’s name is a number, and that number is how many songs have been purchased by that particular artist. If you click on “Not In My Library” on the far right, it will show you a listing of only the songs that have not been purchased or synced on that computer. You can click on the small cloud icon, and it will immediately download to the computer.

A listing of purchased apps also appears in this listing. Note, however, these are the apps for iOS devices, not applications for a computer.  Just as with the music, you can choose either all apps to have ever been purchased on your account or just apps that aren’t downloaded onto the particular computer you’re working on. Clicking on the clouds again downloads them immediately.

For something new to iTunes, iBooks purchases are listed here as well. Previously the only way to download iBooks was through the app on an iOS device, but now they are not only listed here in your purchases, but you can also shop for them directly from your computer. If you go to the iTunes store you can shop for them just as you would music and apps.

This all makes it so much easier to transfer music, as well as apps and books from computer to computer and to all your separate iOS devices. Previously it all had to be done by syncing the devices with the individual computers or devices they were purchased on. Now all your purchasing history is stored in the cloud allowing you to literally access it anywhere. This means you don’t have to carry huge libraries on all your computers and devices, allowing your to choose what type of materials you want uploaded on different devices and at different times.

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Doing The Prep Work

This may sound obvious, but before you begin, you will want to round up all of your iPods and their cords. iPods tend to accrue as we upgrade, so unless you traded in or gave them away, now is a really good time to find them. They may have hidden gems that you were not listening to (or watching) recently, that you do want to keep in your collection in general. While you are at it, dig up any old CDs you have with media you want to add to your collection or external storage (such as flash drives) with parts of your media library on them. This will lead to maximum restoration of your files.

[feedomit][/feedomit]

Importing From Your iPod

Now, you can plug in your first iPod. When you do so, iTunes will open automatically and you should get a pop up window with your syncing options. Choose “Transfer Purchases”

If you are adding to a new system, or you needed a complete reinstall of the OS, you will have to re-authorize the computer. Choose “Authorize” and enter your username and password for iTunes. Remember, if you copy your songs back from a friend with similar music tastes, you will need to use their login to authorize and not your own.

The automatic transfer should happen now.

Eject this iPod when the transfer is complete and repeat with any other iPods you happen to own.

Note to iTouch users: In some cases, when a library was wiped but the software is intact, you may have to follow a bit of a different procedure. Once you plug in and open iTunes you will see tabs labeled with titles like “Music”, “Movies” and “TV Shows”. Check the box next to the word sync in each media category, then click on the button labeled “Sync” in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This will sync your library to the system.

Importing From A Flash Drive

Plug in your drive. When it appears on your desktop, double click it to open the drive. Double click on the songs that you want. When iTunes opens to play them, a box will appear asking if you want to “Add to Library”. Click on “Ok” and your songs will import.

Importing from Your CD’s

I know, if you have an iPod, you probably don’t have a large CD collection, but get out what you do have and get ready to import. This will take the longest, and work only for your music, but it will get back things you cannot retrieve any other way. Insert your CD into the slot. If iTunes is not still open, it will open again and take you to the disks information. Click on the words “Import Disk” and the songs will be copied to your library.

There you have it, as good of a restoration as you are going to get from external media sources. If you had a real favorite that you just cannot restore, you should ask apple to let you re-download it. Just be ready to prove (with your digital receipt) that you own it, and know that asking is a bit of a shot in the dark. Sometimes it is a yes and sometimes it is a no, depending on how much you want to re-download and your proof.

Next time, back up your files please.

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My first foray into the world of e-reading was with the Kindle app on the iPhone. I wanted to be able to read e-books for that portability and cheaper price, but at that time Kindle devices, and most other e-readers, were well over $200. I just didn’t want to spend that much. Not only is the Kindle app free, you don’t have to have the Kindle device to be able to use the app.

The Kindle app works well in conjunction with Amazon. When browsing e-books on amazon.com, you can buy them while on the site, and it automatically sends them to the Kindle app. The next time you launch the app, it’s there. Or, you can shop for books directly from the app itself. If you click on Kindle Store, if takes you to amazon.com on Safari where you can shop for books the same way.

With the books downloaded into the Kindle app, you can read them and not have to worry about losing your place. The app automatically holds that place for you where you last left off. It will also hold additional bookmarks for you if you want to remember other pages other than your current location. Additionally, you can leave annotations to certain selections, and anyone reading the book after this point can see your annotations as well as any others that have been left.

Once Kindle came out with apps for a Mac and PC, the Kindle app for iPhone increased its usefulness. Now if you didn’t want to read a book on your phone, you could read it on your computer and vice versa. Whipersync will keep the two at your most recent reading location so that you can transfer back and forth with ease. It makes reading e-books every bit as mobile as reading a hard copy book.

While I still don’t have a Kindle device, I bought one for my sister for Christmas. I actually started with an off-brand e-reader as a way of saving a few bucks, but with it being nearly impossible to work with, I returned it and bought her the Kindle instead. A voracious reader, she couldn’t have been happier with the Kindle. Amazon ships the devices already synced to your account, so it shipped pre-loaded with all the books I had already bought and read on my Kindle app. We kept it synced to my account, and it seamlessly updates between the iPhone app, the desk app, and the device itself.

After I had already downloaded the Kindle App, the iPhone came out with their iBooks app. Trying both, the iBooks app doesn’t have near the ease of use that the Kindle app does, which is odd for a native iPhone app. It’s on my iPhone, but I rarely ever use it, unless it’s to read something that the iPhone sends to the application. I definitely don’t ever read books in it.

Aside from the fact that some users think reading a book on a smaller screen like the iPhone can be cumbersome, the only other disadvantage to the Kindle app for iPhone is that you can’t read magazines or newspapers on it like you can the regular Kindle device. You also can’t read them on the Kindle apps for the Mac and PC. If that’s the sole reason you’re considering the download, to read your news, it’s not worth it. But if you’re looking for an easy way to read books, a way that is as every bit mobile as you are, then this is the way to go.

The Kindle App can be downloaded from Amazon and iTunes.

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As you know, syncing music/video between iTunes and your iOS devices is an one-way affair. You can only transfer music and video from iTunes to your devices and not the other ways around. If one day your iTunes library is corrupted, all the data will be gone even though you have a copy in your iOS devices. Wondershare iMate is able to sync and transfer your music and video from the devices back to iTunes. What’s more, it supports photos and ebooks as well.

In addition, Wondershare iMate include DVD ripping feature and ringtone maker so you can rip your DVD into iOS compatible format and quickly sync with your mobile devices.

The giveaway is available at http://www.wondershare.com/store/special-offer.html and is available from now till Apr 2nd, 2011. Grab it while it lasts.

Note: Wondershare iMate is for Windows only

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Creating a Playlist

Playlist creation is actually incredibly simple, although it does hide a little, at least until you know where to look. Head to your home screen and open up iPod. Now, just as in iTunes on your Mac or PC, in the lower left hand corner you should see a plus sign. This is the button used to create a new playlist, and it looks like this:

A simple click will give you the following screen, allowing you to name your brand new playlist. Enter your name and click the save button to add songs, and we’ll be off and running!

Adding Music

Now that we’ve created the actual playlist itself, its time to add the music! To do this, your mobile iTunes brings up a list of songs. If you don’t have much music, sorting by song like iTunes does by default might be fine, but if you’re like me, you’ve got a ton. In this case, just use the filters at the bottom of the screen to sort your music. For example, the first window below is my iPad sorted by default, then by artist. This make is much easier to find what you’re looking for. Once you do, simply click the plus sign to the right of each song you want to add to your new playlist!

Editing Your Playlist

Once you’ve added all the songs you want, tap “Done” in the top right corner to tell iTunes you’re ready to actually use your playlist. iTunes first though will take you to a screen where you can edit the playlist you’ve just created. As you can see below, you can delete the songs by clicking the red minus sign on the left side of each song. In addition, if you look to the right side of the screen, you will see three horizontal lines, tap and drag these markings to change the order of the songs. You can also click “Add Songs” in the top right corner, or “Done” when you’re finished.

Play it already!

Once you’re all finished and have clicked done, you’ll be greeted with the window below, your actual playlist. Tap on a song to start playing your new list, or click the “Edit” button in the top right corner to add or delete songs, or just change their order. You can even do things like add more than one instance of the same song for new ones you always want to hear twice!

Wrap-Up

Apple’s been making waves in mobile music since the advent of its iPod, and hasn’t skimped on the iPod app for iOS devices that do more than music. As a capable player, I use it practically everyday at some point, but its definitely not my only mobile music solution, let alone my only music player in general! What do you use, and what could make the iPad’s iPod app better? Tell us in the comments!

Related Posts:

• Using iTunes Genius on Mac, iPhone, and iPad
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Displaying Duplicates

The first way to clean duplicates out of your library is to have iTunes show you what duplicates actually exist in your library. To do this, open up iTunes and make sure you’re in your library screen. Then simply click File, and then Display Duplicates. This will change your library window into a duplicates window, showing you every music file you’ve got loaded into iTunes of which there is another with the same name.

You can now look through and find what you want to keep, or delete, and do so. This method is great for smaller libraries, or if you’re just trying to see how many duplicate files, and associated wasted space (as you can see displayed at the bottom of the screen) your library has. Where this becomes difficult though, are instances where repeats are okay, for instance, an actual studio album versus a live record. The songs in common between these CD’s may have the same name, but are very different songs. What do we do? Just keep reading to find out!

Displaying Exact Duplicates

If you have remixes or live tracks that share song names with albums, this is the method for you. Just like in the last method, we’re looking to the File menu for help. This time though, after click file, hold the Alt, or Option key, and you’ll notice that where it used to say Display Duplicates, it will now read Display Exact Duplicates. Clicking this will display, rather than songs whose names match, songs who are literally exact matches. This avoids seeing those same-title, different-track duplicates in your list, and can drastically change your results. Compare mine below to those above to see what I mean.

Which should I try?

Well, the differences are clear. You’re going to get way more results with the former, more broad search, and much more specific results with the latter. Which you want to use depends mostly on what your goal is. Is your hard drive full, and you’re looking to get rid of, or just move, a bunch of music that you only listen to occasionally, lie those live albums? Or, like many, have you copied and moved and recopied your library a bunch of times, with the best of intentions, but mixed results, and you need to clean up copies of files that shouldn’t be there? In that case, you’ll need the latter, more specific duplicate search.

What other ways have you found to keep your library clean? Do you use a third party utility, or just let iTunes handle it all? Let us know in the comments!

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Luckily, it is not difficult to get your playlist across the cable to your phone. Here are four ways that you can use to sync iTunes music to Android.

1. Sailing Media Sync

Sailing Media Sync can sync your iTunes music, playlists, podcasts and photos from iPhoto or Aperture onto your Android device. It is currently available in two versions: free and premium. The free version copies all your media files every time it performs a sync. It does not keep a record of what has already been sync. Depending on the size of your media library, the whole syncing process can take a long time. On the other hand, the pro version costs $22 and it can intelligently updates your phone, resulting in a faster sync.

The usage is simple. Plug in your Android device with the USB cable and turn on USB storage mode. Sailing Media Sync will automatically detect the device and prompt you to perform a synchronization. You can select from the list whether you want to sync music, podcast and photos.

Sailing Media Sync is available for Windows and Mac.

Download Sailing Media Sync

2. iTunesMyWalkman

iTunesMyWalkman is a open source application that helps you to synchronize the contents of iTunes playlists to your mobile phone or other portable device, including Android phone.

There are several advantages in using iTunesMyWalkman.

1. It works on Mac 10.4 Tiger. Most applications only work on Mac Leopard and above, so it is good to see that iTunesMyWalkman plays well with Tiger too.

2. It includes iTunes scripts and Folder Actions so it can automatically detect your Android phone and synchronize your music and playlist right within iTunes.

3. It is able to re-encode your music on the fly to save space. This is useful if you have a small storage space in your phone, or that your phone does not only support the media format in iTunes.

4. It is able to sync your camera pictures to your hard disk or iPhoto.

Note: If you have a large media library, it will be very slow the first time you perform the synchronization.

iTunesMyWalkman is available for Mac Tiger and above.

Download iTunesMyWalkman

3. Dazzboard

Dazzboard is different from all other apps. It is a web app that works within your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari).

Before you can use it, you have to download and install a plugin from the Dazzboard site. After the installation, you can visit the website again and it will prompt you to launch the web app.

Within the app, you can select the music/video/photo/playlist from either device (your computer and Android phone) and transfer to and fro from each device. in Windows, you can even sync your Android applications to your desktop.

Dazzboard is available for Windows and Mac.

Download Dazzboard plugin

4. DoubleTwist

This article won’t be completed without DoubleTwist. DoubleTwist is a great media player that many even touted it as the “iTunes for Android”. After you have installed it in your computer (Windows or Mac), it will automatically import your iTunes music and playlist. When you connect your Android phone to your Mac, it can detect your phone and give you an option to sync your media content.

Double Twist is available for Windows and Mac.

Download Double Twist

Premium software

While this article is about free tools, there are several premium apps that can sync iTunes music to your Android phone as well.

1. TuneSync – TuneSync allows you to sync your iTunes playlist wirelessly. There are two parts to TuneSync, an Android app and a desktop app. The Android app costs $4.99 (there is a lite version though) while the desktop app is free to download. TuneSync works on both Windows and Mac.

2. iSyncr – Other than the usual syncing, iSyncr also supports smart playlist, song ratings, play counts, podcast and videos. iSyncr also comes in two parts: Android app ($2.99) and a desktop app (free). iSyncr is available for Windows and Mac

3. The Missing Sync – At $40, this is one hell of an expensive app. However, it is also the best synchronization app out there. Things it can sync include calendars, Fliq notes, SMS messages, contacts, music, photos, videos, docs, podcasts and call history. It also supports wireless sync.

What do you use to sync iTunes music to your Android phone?

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Why SyncPod?

There are many reasons why you want to transfer music back to your Mac.

1. You can only sync your iDevices with one Mac. If you want to sync the music to iTunes in another Mac, there is no way you can do that.

2. There are times when your Mac crashes and you have no backup of your music library. The music in your iPhone is the only backup you have.

3. Your friend’s iPhone contains songs that you love. You can immediately plug in his/her iPhone to your Mac and transfer the music over.

Usage

1. When you first install SyncPod, it requires you to first install the iPhone Disk (comes with the installer) package. This package allows the application to access the filesystem of your iDevices over USB.

2. When you open SyncPod and plug in your iPhone, you will see the iPhone entry in the left panel.

Select the Music option and all your music files will appear in the right panel. There are three options at the bottom of the panel. You can transfer music to any location in your Mac, import music to iTunes or transfer files from Mac to your iPhone.

3. Simply check the files you want to transfer and click the corresponding button at the bottom. That’s it. Didn’t I say it is very easy?

Free Giveaway

SyncPod costs $19 to buy, but iSkysoft has gladly agrees to sponsor 15 free license keys for our readers, and you could be the winner!

Here’s how you can participate and stand a chance to win the license key:

Step 1

Be our Facebook fan or follow us in Twitter:

STEP 2

Fill up the form below. This is to make sure that we can contact you when you win the license. We promise that we won’t spam you.

Update: This giveaway contest has ended.

STEP 3
Share this post either in Facebook or Twitter, AND leave a comment below.

This giveaway begins now and ends Thursday, 11th November 2010 at 2359hrs Eastern Time This giveaway contest has ended.. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email.

Share and enjoy!

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Some people are fine with this, but for those who wish that they can play (almost) any kind of movie files without the trouble of converting them can use some help from iOS apps that are built just for this purpose. Here are two alternative free apps that you can use.

1. VLC

This is one of the most popular media players for all the computer platforms out there, and now it has come to iPhone.

The iPhone version does only one thing and it does it very well – play videos. You can throw in practically any kind of videos and this baby will play them without difficulties.

The interface is also simple. You will see a list of available videos along with small thumbnails, “About” and “Edit” button (to delete the files), and nothing else.

To play a video, just tap on the one that you want to watch and you are ready to go. You can slide to adjust the volume and position of the scenes. There are also other standard playback buttons like Play/Pause and Skip Backward and Forward. Tap the “Done” button to stop playing, and tap the screen to hide/unhide the tools.

To add videos, you’ll need the help from iTunes. Plug your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Select the phone from the left pane and go to the “Apps” tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select VLC from the list. Click the “Add” button and browse to the place where the video files are, and the rest is self-explanatory.

2. OPlayer Lite

The second alternative is OPlayer. There are two version of this app: the Pro-paid version and the Lite-free version. Both come with more bells and whistles than VLC in terms of features.

Note: I’ve tried the lite version and it crashed a couple of times. Still, it’s a viable alternative.

You can add video files to OPlayer via iTunes, similar to VLC.

And those files will be presented in explorer-style. Tap on “My Documents” and you can choose one of the available videos to watch.

The playback options are similar to VLC, with the ability to play full screen by tapping on the screen.

There’s one thing that made me excited about OPlayer. I found out at the “Settings” that this app is capable of attaching subtitle to the movie (SRT files). So I experimented by adding a movie with its SRT files along with it. It turns out that the subtitle appeared for the first several seconds and then gone.

OPlayer is also able to add files via WiFi connection. You need to point your browser to the address that OPlayer provided. This address will always change every time you start the app, so be sure to check back the “WiFi Transfer” options from “More” menu every time you want to go through the process.

Your browser will show upload/download interface. Choose file and click the “Submit” button to upload, or click one of the file to download.

Another cool ability from OPlayer is the ability to open web page and download video files directly from the web. I opened YouTube successfully but not able to find any way to download the videos. I didn’t know any direct link to download videos from web so I couldn’t try the feature.

So far, these two apps are the best alternatives of video players that I could find in iPhone. If you know other alternatives, please share using the comment below.

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I purchased an app from App Store which I think I can use with my iPad; I was wrong. So, I decided to return it to Apple and claim for a refund. Fortunately, the amount I paid for the app was credited back to my account. I wasn’t even expecting it to happen as Apple sales policy says that all transactions made or purchases are final and cannot be refunded. Maybe I was just so lucky…

Read before you ask for refunds

Anyway, there are certain situations that Apple might consider when someone asks for a refund, and they are as follow;

1. You are an iPhone user but you purchased an iPad version of the app or vice versa. Obviously, the app you purchased will be of no use.

2. You have the intention of purchasing a game but there are a dozen of similar names and the one you finally purchased is not what you are looking for. You can return it to Apple and request for a refund.

3. You bought a music track from iTunes but has different format and is not playable with your iPhone or iPod.

4. You have ordered a movie from the iTunes store but you found out that it would take so much time to download because of its size. When you cancel the download, you will still be charged for the movie. You can create a dispute about such transaction.

Recently, I came across with this problem and here’s what I did;

How to ask for a refund from Apple

Look for the email receipt from iTunes when you purchased the app. From there, you will be able to find a link which says “Report a Problem” and that’s exactly what you are going to do.

Now you need to reason out clearly why you are claiming for a refund from the app you purchased. First, you have to choose the problem which is closely applicable to your situation. Then, in the comments field, fill in the reason why.

If your reason is acceptable enough, then the amount you paid for the app will be credited back to your account within 24-45 hours and you will receive an email similar to this.

There is another way of claiming for a refund, try to check below;

Launch the iTunes Store and look for a drop down menu at the upper right corner in your browser; click on ‘Account‘. You will, then, be brought to your account information page. Look for ‘Purchase History‘ button and click on it.

In the purchase history page, a list of all your purchases will be presented. Look for the app you are having problems with and click on the ‘Report a Problem‘ link in line with it.

The next window will ask you to choose the kind of problem you are experiencing with the app. Also, you need to fill in the reason why you are claiming for a refund. As long as your reason is valid and logical, there is no need to worry about.

As I mentioned earlier, I should have been lucky to have received a refund because Apple is so strict when it comes to refunds. For those who have accidentally purchased an app and want to return it, you may try these steps and see for yourself how it goes with Apple. What I can advice you if Apple won’t issue a refund is, move on!

Image credit: Ben Husmann

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BlackBox is a third party app that allows you to convert your media files to iPhone ringtone simply by drag and drop. No hacking required and it just works. Other than ringtone, it also supports conversion of audio to mp3 file and video to iDevice compatible format.

Usage

Download and install the BlackBox app here. Open the BlackBox app from your Applications folder. You should see a simple square window as shown below:

Before you start to drag and drop your media file, it is best to first visit the Preferences and configure the settings.

On the menubar, go to “BlackBox -> Preferences“. There are only two options. The first option is to choose whether to convert your media file to ringtone or just MP3. The second option is whether it should automatically add to iTunes.

When you are done with your configuration, simply drag and drop your media files to the BlackBox window. If you choose to convert to ringtone, you will see a popout with options to change the start and end time of the ringtone. Note that the ringtone for iPhone only allows 30 seconds of playback, so if you change the start time, make sure the end time is within 30 seconds of the start time.

When the conversion is completed, you will see the success message.

That’s it. You can now add the converted ringtone to your iPhone (if you have got it to add to iTunes automatically).

Video Conversion

As for the video conversion, to say the truth, I have difficulty in getting it to work. Initially, I dropped a MP4 file into the window and all I see is an error message “Not supported media”. Next, I tried with a 3GP video clip and the same error message appear.

It was only when I gave it an AVI file then it worked. I have not tried it with FLV or any other video formats yet.

The problem here is that there is a lack of documentation (absolutely zero documentation) and the error message is not useful at all. I would hope to see a more detail error message, stating which video format is supported and which is not. At the moment, everything is just guesswork.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to convert your media (either ringtone or iDevice compatible format), then BlackBox can definitely serve your needs. However, I would hope that it can improve further by adding a documentation, or perhaps a more useful error message to the app, and it would be prefect.

What do you think?

Image credit: re-ality

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• Backup your iPhone before doing the jailbreak. Restoring the data is easier to do after the jailbreak process.
• Jailbreaking may void the warranty of your iPhone; you should know that after doing the following steps, you cannot just go to Apple stores and proclaim your iPhone is not working.
• You must be responsible for securing your iPhone after the jailbreak.
• This tutorial is for Mac users only.
• RedSn0w, the tool used in this tutorial to jailbreak your iPhone, is NOT used to UNLOCK your iPhone.
• Make sure your iPhone 3G runs on iTunes 9.2 before you proceed.
• RedSn0w will never work on iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4.

Here are the steps you should follow to jailbreak iOS 4.0.2 for your iPhone 3G.

Step 1. Download the following files:

• A. Latest release of RedSn0w for Mac OS. Click Here to download.
• B. Latest iOS 4.0.2 firmware or iPhone1,2_4.0.2_8A400_Restore.ipsw
• C. iOS 4 firmware file or iPhone1,2_4.0_8A293_Restore.ipsw

Step 2. Extract RedSn0w and put it in a directory you can easily access; you should know that the RedSn0w is provided to you in a zip file. Here are the files you must be seeing when you unzip the file;

Step 3. Connect your iPhone 3G to your computer – it will automatically launch iTunes. On the left side, under “Devices” select the iPhone 3G device. Press on the option key and click on “Restore” button. Please see screenshot for your guide.

Step 4. Now, browse through the directory where you have unzipped the redsn0w file and select the firmware file for iOS 4.0.2 (iPhone1,2_4.0.2_8A400_Restore.ipsw) and click on “Choose” button to let iTunes update your iPhone for the required firmware.

Step 5. Go back to the directory where you unzipped the redsn0w application. Launch redsn0w and you will be asked to choose the correct IPSW file. Choose the iOS 4 firmware (iPhone1,2_4.0_8A293_Restore.ipsw). Choosing the iOS 4.0.2 firmware will lead to an error message: “Unable to recognize specified IPSW.”

Step 6. Redsn0w will verify the IPSW or the firmware file you chose and will notify you if it is successful. When you click on “Next” redsn0w will start preparing the data for jailbreaking.

Step 7. The next step will prompt you to choose among the options given for your iPhone 3G and there are four checkboxes that are already selected by default. I advice you to use the default settings.

Step 8. Click “Next” to continue with the jailbreak. The next screen will prompt you to turn off your iPhone 3G. If you are ready, click “Next.”

Step 9. To complete the jailbreak, you should put your iPhone into DFU mode. Redsn0w will take you step-by-step on how to do it. Follow the screenshots;

Step 10. Once the process is done, your iPhone 3G will reboot and redsn0w will upload new RAM disk and kernel.

Step 11. You will soon be notified that the jailbreaking is done. Simply click on “Finish” button to close the redsn0w.

Step 12. Lastly, your iPhone 3G will reboot longer than usual. After which, you can see the Cydia application on your iPhone 3G’s home screen. That means, everything is successful.

Windows users, don’t forget to check out our previous article on how to jailbreak iOS 4.0.2 for iPhone 3G in WinOS.

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When you click the SizzlingKeys preferences pane for the first time, you are greeted with this window:

A quick look around makes SizzlingKeys usefulness blatantly apparent. It actually gives you a few advantages that you didn’t have prior to installation. First, you can assign iTunes hot-keys to whatever keys you want, meaning you can make the keys in the home row on your keyboard, or at least close to it, making it much easier to stay in your workflow and change a song than it would be to head all the way to the top of the keyboard to do it. Additionally though, you can now use an external keyboard to control iTunes, and it will be exactly the same as when you’re using your laptop’s keyboard! This is great because it doesn’t make you learn more than one way to do the same thing.  Last, it allows you to have the functionality of your function keys back for all applications!

Feel free to assign some keys and have fun! Not much changes when you click “Start,” but for reference, it should say SizzlingKeys is running, in green, like below:

One more thing that is absolutely worth mentioning is SizzlingKeys’ Extras tab. These are just some fun little capabilities that are baked in to the app, but they are so frequently used amongst many Mac owners I know that a lot of people have apps that enable these things separately. My favorite’s are the “Put computer to sleep” and “Lock computer” hot-keys, which frankly, I probably use more than the iTunes ones! Pretty great deal for a free app!

The last step you probably want to take to completely utilize SizzlingKeys best traits is to disable those media keys, turning them back into standard function keys. To do this, just head in to System Preference and click Keyboard. Then, make sure you’re in the keyboard tab, and check the box labeled “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys“. The window should appear as it does below, until you check the box.

And that’s that! Now you’ve got a new, quick, and easy way to change iTunes tracks, volume, and way more, and you’ve coaxed a little more functionality and flexibility from your standard keyboard!

Have another way to get similar results, or a question or comment?  Tell us below!

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